Fresh reports on the Cleveland Browns, NFL, Pro Football Hall of Fame and Super Bowl.

Pronk is out, Gronk might be in

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By Steve Doerschuk

My big brother’s prize for “best costume” at a long-ago downtown Canton Halloween party was a white football signed by the 1964 Browns. He gave it to me a few years ago. The Browns have masqueraded as an NFL team for too many of the years since we
...

My big brother’s prize for “best costume” at a long-ago downtown Canton Halloween party was a white football signed by the 1964 Browns. He gave it to me a few years ago. The Browns have masqueraded as an NFL team for too many of the years since we played tackle football in our yard on Sherman Church Road. I have no plans to punt that ball, though.

A number of issues have popped up or become clearer in the early part of camp ... things that weren’t quite crystal clear in the spring.

Some of the issues:

• There is no pretense of giving Colt McCoy bunches of snaps with the ones in order to give him a fair shot at beating out old man Weeden.

• Seneca Wallace made it clear in the spring that he DOES NOT wish to be a No. 3 quarterback. Everything that has happened in camp makes it look as if he is the No. 3 quarterback.

In 11 on 11s, Weeden is on first, then McCoy, then Wallace.

• Not that we’ve heard anyone grumbling about McCoy not getting a fair shake, but ...

A few guys go out of their way to talk about McCoy’s strengths when we hone in on questions aimed at their impressions of Weeden.

The loose translation from some of these guys: You’re a jackwagon if you think McCoy is a stiff.

• The players generally like Weeden. He has not busted on in with an annoying sense of entitlement.

• You may recall how sensational Ben Tate looked for the Texans in their game against the Browns last November. It was the game that told you it was going to bee a long second half.

Had the Browns won, they would have been 4-4, but there was never any chance of that happening, and Tate (12 carries, 115 yards) was a big reason.

We bring this up because Tate was the 58th pick of the 2010 draft. When the Texans pounced on him, Tom Heckert got antsy, because he thought Tate’s disappearance left only one really dynamic back on the board.

Heckert had to pony up a trade to do it, but he made the deal, and grabbed Hardesty at No. 59, one pick after Tate.

Long story short: Hardesty has been moving so well in practice that you allow for the possibility ... no matter how bad the last two years have been, Hardesty still might be worth the pick if he can give the Browns a 1-2 as good as Houston’s.